The Walker family arrived
in Nauvoo in the spring of 1841. That summer Lucy’s Mother
contracted malaria and died months later in January 1842, leaving ten children. Her Father, John,
was heartbroken and his health, “seemed to give way”. Lucy
remembers, “The Prophet came to the rescue. He Said, if you remain here
Bro. Walker, you will soon follow your wife. You must have a change
of scene, a change of climate. You have Just such a family as I could
love. My house shall be their home...place the little ones with kind
friends, and the four Eldest shall come to my house and [be] received and
treated as my own children...” The change of scene and climate
that Joseph had in mind for John Walker was a two year mission to the eastern
states. In response to this arrangement Lucy said, “I rung my
hands in the agony of despair at the thought of being broken up as a family,
and being sepparated from the little ones...” Never-the-less,
fifteen-year-old Lucy moved into the Prophets house.

While living in the
Smith home, Lucy remembers: “In the year 1842 President Joseph Smith
sought an interview with me, and said, ‘I have a message for you, I have
been commanded of God to take another wife, and you are the woman.’
My astonishment knew no bounds. This announcement was indeed a thunderbolt
to me...He asked me if I believed him to be a Prophet of God. ‘Most assuredly
I do I replied.’...He fully Explained to me the principle of plural or
celestial marriage. Said this principle was again to be restored
for the benefit of the human family. That it would prove an everlasting
blessing to my father’s house.”

“What do you have
to Say?” Joseph asked. “Nothing” Lucy replied, “How
could I speak, or what would I say?” Joseph encouraged her to
pray: “tempted and tortured beyond endureance until life was not desirable.
Oh that the grave would kindly receive me that I might find rest on the
bosom of my dear mother...Why – Why Should I be chosen from among thy daughters,
Father I am only a child in years and experience. No mother to council;
no father near to tell me what to do, in this trying hour. Oh let
this bitter cup pass. And thus I prayed in the agony of my soul.”

Joseph told Lucy that
the marriage would have to be secret, but that he would acknowledge her
as his wife, “beyond the Rocky Mountains”. He then gave Lucy
an ultimatum, “It is a command of God to you. I will give you
untill to-morrow to decide this matter. If you reject this message the
gate will be closed forever against you.” Lucy said, “This
arroused every drop of scotch in my veins...I felt at this moment that
I was called to place myself upon the altar a liveing Sacrafice, perhaps
to brook the world in disgrace and incur the displeasure and contempt of
my youthful companions; all my dreams of happiness blown to the four winds,
this was too much, the thought was unbearable.”

Now, bearing the burden
of her own eternal salvation and that of her family, and with a deadline
approaching, Lucy prayed more fervently for an answer. She couldn’t
sleep the entire night. Just before dawn, and Joseph’s deadline,
she “received a powerful and irristable testimony of the truth of the
mariage covenant called 'Celestial or plural mariage'” and "I afterwards
married Joseph as a plural wife and lived and cohabitated with him as such."
Lucy married Joseph on May 1, 1843. At the time, Emma was in
St. Louis buying supplies for the Nauvoo hotel. Lucy remembers, “Emma
Smith was not present and she did not consent to the marriage; she did
not know anything about it at all.” Of the relationship, Lucy
said, “It was not a love matter, so to speak, in our affairs, -at least
on my part it was not, but simply the giving up of myself as a sacrifice
to establish that grand and glorious principle that God had revealed to
the world.”

After Joseph was killed
in June 1844, Lucy married Heber C. Kimball. Explaining the relationship,
Lucy said, “...The contract when I married Mr. Kimball was that I should
be his wife for time, and time only, ...and in the resurrection [he] would
surrender me, with my children, to Joseph Smith.”

Brigham Young taught
that “no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the
celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith.”
As Heber lay on his death bed he called Lucy to his side and hoping to
win favor with Joseph Smith, asked her, “What can you tell Joseph when
you meet him? Cannot you say that I have been kind to you as it was possible
to be under the circumstances? I know you can, and am confident you will
be as a mediator between me and Joseph...”